Normally, in European mountains, beyond a given altitude, usually between 1500 and 2000 meters, forests are substituted by grasslands, because the conditions that allow plants to develop an arboreal aspect do not occur. We go outside the dense beech forest, where solar rays sometimes struggle to penetrate, and the panorama opens on the meadows, interrupted only by some rocks and bushes. However, there is a tree, the Bosnian pine (Pinus leucodermis), a conifer that manages to grow up also up there, in very harsh conditions, where other trees cannot make it. This is a typical species of Balkan mountains that has in the Pollino National Park, in Southern Italy, its only stronghold outside the main range. The pines live in very tough conditions, sometimes growing up directly from the rocks, on very poor soils, and exposed to icy snowstorms in winter, as well as to lightings during summer. Thanks to these factors there is no tree equal to another, since every individual develops in unique shapes and several dead pines (after lightings) still stand up, as skeletons. The highest peaks of Pollino, where these pines live, are in my opinion some of the last strongholds of wilderness in Italy, among the most emblematic places of my country.